Government 'must improve' IT training

16:35 10th February 2009

Ministers are being urged to improve the availability of IT training to all members of the public, in an effort to ensure people have the skills to beat the recession.

As more businesses face closure and redundancies are expected to increase, unions Unite and IT skills body e-Skills UK have called on skills minister Paul Murphy to help people get the skills they need to find new jobs, according to Computing magazine.

"Lack of access to affordable introductory IT user skills training ... is a major cause of exclusion from job opportunities and full participation in today's digital economy and society," a letter from the organisations to Mr Murphy explained.

Companies should also look to improve their IT training facilities to ensure that they can retain staff during the recession.

The government itself has been criticised for failing to do enough on training its own members of staff, with figures from a Freedom of Information request revealing that few government departments budget for training staff on IT security, despite a number of high-profile lapses.